Holiday Book Drive

During our annual Holiday Book Drive, Barnes & Noble stores donate books to hundreds of charities across the country to provide for those in need. Our stellar booksellers and generous customers are the driving force behind millions of donations that make their way into grateful hands.

During the 2016 Holiday Book Drive, Barnes & Noble donated over 1.6 million books to more than 650 local charities across the country that provide services to disadvantaged children. This is an increase of nearly 100,000 books donated from the 2015 drive!

Following are a few heart-warming stories from the 2016 book drive:

Our Eagan, MN, store chose three worthy organizations in the Eagan/St. Paul area as the recipients of their donations including Dakota Woodlands, Pinky Swear and Neighborhood House. Their dedicated booksellers collected more than 5,000 books for the donation. Pictured below are some of the top booksellers from the store (pictured left to right): Head Cashier Savannah Hanley, Bookseller Taylor Johnson and Children's Lead Jennifer Leighton.

Our Holyoke, MA, store created a partnership with local organization Link to Libraries that will last beyond the 2,500+ books that were donated. The book donations support Link to Libraries’ goal to improve the quality of life for boys and girls in underserved local communities and to share the gift of reading and imagination. Below, booksellers show their enthusiasm about the partnership with Link to Libraries.

Our Birmingham, AL, store saw exceptional performance from one bookseller who had real “book drive.” Natalie Burton secured over 600 donations and went above and beyond to ensure that the store’s book drive, benefitting the local children’s hospital, was successful. Each day she worked, Natalie came in with a donation goal in mind and exceeded it beyond expectations. Natalie is pictured below with one of the store's suggested book donations, In My Heart.

Our Fayetteville, AR, store invited several special guests to the store to help ignite the Holiday Book Drive. Five local news anchors from two different stations came to the store to read holiday children’s books for a morning and afternoon Storytime, which was then posted on their social media to encourage viewers to come in and buy books for donation. The store was also joined by various other community organizations to help support and promote the drive. Overall, customers donating 2,800+ books to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital & Clinics - a 79{21daaa91be11b6df7b6b0d12cc80367c48272e9bd80ee3d69e19718c875fa2e9} increase from the previous year! Below are KFSM News anchors Daren Bobb and April Walker with Springdale Public Library’s Children’s Librarian Erin Renollet, who were among the guest readers for the holiday Storytime.